BACKGROUND: Waste textiles, such as dyed cellulosic and/or polyester blended fabrics have the potential to serve as an alternative feedstock for the production of biological products via microbial fermentation. Dissolution pretreatment was employed to enhance the enzymatic saccharification of dyed and synthetic fiber blended cellulosic fabrics. The fermentable reducing sugars obtained from waste cellulosic fabrics were used to culture Gluconobacter xylinus for value-added bacterial cellulose (BC) production. RESULTS: Concentrated phosphoric acid was the ultimate cellulose solvent for dissolution pretreatment since 5% w/w cellulosic fabric can be completed dissolved at 50 degrees C. After regeneration in water, the cellulosic precipitate was subjected to cellulase hydrolysis, resulting in at least 4-fold enhancement of saccharification rate and reducing sugars yield. The colored saccharification products can be utilized by G. xylinus to produce BC, approximately 1.8 g L-1 BC pellicle was obtained after 7 days static cultivation. CONCLUSION: Dyed and blended waste fabric can be pretreated effectively by dissolution to produce fermentable sugars by cellulase hydrolysis. Dissolution pretreatment can expose the dyed or polyester fiber covered digestible cellulosic fibers to cellulase and leads to a significant enhancement of saccharification yield. The colored saccharification products have no significant inhibiting effect on the fermentation activity of G. xylinus for BC production. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry